


It's Okay to Cry

by SpraceJunkie



Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: kinda hurt comfort? but not super specificly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-11-14 05:42:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11201637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpraceJunkie/pseuds/SpraceJunkie
Summary: Jack Kelly is a dad friend and here's why.





	It's Okay to Cry

**Author's Note:**

> This is ridiculously short but here ya go.

Jack was the closest thing most of his newsies had to a father. He was the one who wiped the little one’s noses when they ran, who gave up his food when they were going hungry, who read the bedtime stories out loud when they couldn’t sleep. Jack was the one who held them close, who walked with them to help clear their heads, who kissed their foreheads and pulled a blanket tight around them every night, who made sure they drank water in the summer and wrapped the holes in their shoes tight in the winter.

Jack was also the one who listened when they came to him in the middle of the night, trying their hardest to hold back their tears.

“It’s okay to cry.” He would whisper, wrapping them in with him in his own blanket.

“It’s okay to cry.” To Romeo, scared to death after seeing his father for the first time in years.

“It’s okay to cry.” To Crutchie, waking up after a nightmare with terror in his eyes, choked up and trying his hardest to be strong.

“It’s okay to cry.” To Finch, coming up wondering if him “pretending” to be a boy was wrong, even though Jack and everyone who knew him knew he was more of a man than anyone else they knew.

“It’s okay to cry.” To Specs, scared as his hearing got worse and worse, as he relied more and more on Romeo and hand signs to get by.

“It’s okay to cry.” To himself, a reminder when he caught himself holding back after waking up from memories that hurt.

Somehow, though, he never expected to be saying it to a boy he’d never expected to see in that alley, fourteen years old and stronger than anyone else he knew.

“It’s okay to cry.” He said quietly to Spot Conlon, the boy everyone was so scared of, as he tried to hold himself together in an alley in Manhattan, scared and alone. “It’s okay to cry.” He repeated as Spot finally gave in, slowly relaxing into Jack’s arms until Jack was hugging him close and he was sobbing. “It’s okay to cry.” Jack whispered one last time as Spot somehow pulled himself together and stood up, slipping back into what Jack could see now was a mask of toughness and stone. 

And Spot Conlon nodded and offered Jack a spit-in hand, which Jack accepted as he pulled the small boy to his feet.

Because it was. It was okay to cry.

**Author's Note:**

> Jack Kelly is a dad friend he's such a dad friend even to people he isn't that super close to.  
> Kudos liked, reviews loved!


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